Te Rā: The Māori Sail, by Ariana Tikao and Mat Tait. Christchurch Art Gallery (2023). RRP: $26.50. HB: 36pp. ISBN: 9781877375811. Reviewed by Kirsty Dunn. ‘…Let us bring in the fishers, the warriors, the weavers,the healers, the connectors, the dreamers. Let us bring back in all those who have become stray strands,weave them in, weave them…
Hannah and Huia by Charlotte Lobb. Quentin Wilson Publishing (2023). RRP: $37.50. PB, 240pp. ISBN: 9781991103109. Reviewed by Rebecca Styles. In the author’s note to Charlotte Lobb’s debut novel, she explains her own challenges with the ‘discomfort of owning and accepting my own battles with depression, anxiety, PTSD and worse’ (p.238). While the novel is…
End Times by Rebecca Priestley. THWUP (2023). RRP: $35.00. PB, 240pp. ISBN: 9781776921188. Reviewed by Hester Ullyart. Dedicated to ‘Maz, my BFF’, End Times is based upon a week-long real-life West Coast road trip in 2021, mapping anxiety, formative teenage years, and rocks—metaphorical and literal. It would make an awesome female-gaze-scientist-post-kids buddy movie. You heard…
Saga by Hannah Mettner. THWUP (2023). RRP: $25. HB, 88pp. ISBN: 9781776921157. Reviewed by Vera Hua Dong. Hannah Mettner’s Saga offers a full-bodied subterranean vehemence, and profound social commentary and thought, inspired by her personal observations and sensibility. She delivers deep reflections without reserve on matters of importance to her. And she is not afraid…
Hoof by Kerrin P. Sharpe. THWUP (2023). RRP: $25.00. PB, 96pp. ISBN: 9781776921225. Reviewed by S. J. Mannion. Kerrin P. Sharpe certainly lives up to her surname here, her poetry has the kind of clarity that bites… and though you’re never quite sure where you’ve been bitten, still you feel the teeth marks throb. Hmm, an extended…
Birdspeak by Arihia Latham. Anahera Press (2023). RRP: $25.00. PB, 100pp. ISBN: 9780473678524. Reviewed by Isla Huia. The most recent release from Anahera Press, Birdspeak, is Arihia Latham’s debut collection of poetry. Speaking through the generations of her tīpuna in their home of Te Wai Pounamu, to the present day in the lives of her closest…